The Hospital Ship That Sailed Down the Brisbane River — and Four Years Later Met a German Torpedo!
On 24 November 1914, a remarkable vessel was photographed making her way down the Brisbane River.
She looked like a passenger liner - because that’s exactly what she had been.
But now her hull was painted white and marked with the Red Cross.
This was HMAT Kyarra (A55), and Brisbane was an important part of her remarkable wartime story.
Built at Dumbarton, Scotland, by William Denny & Brothers and launched in 1903, Kyarra was a 6,953-ton passenger and cargo steamer operated by the Australian United Steam Navigation Company. Before the war, she operated on the company's coastal services, including the Sydney–Fremantle route.
Then came the First World War.
On 6 November 1914, Kyarra was requisitioned and converted into a hospital ship to transport Australian medical units and their equipment to Egypt.
And Brisbane was one of the first places she visited in her new role.
The contemporary account by medical officer James W. Barrett records that Kyarra proceeded to Brisbane and embarked part of the 1st Australian General Hospital. She then travelled to Sydney to embark the 2nd Australian General Hospital before continuing to Melbourne for further medical personnel and equipment.
Australian War Memorial embarkation records confirm that members of the 1st Australian General Hospital embarked aboard Kyarra at Brisbane on 21 November 1914.
Just three days later, on 24 November, a photograph was taken as Kyarra sailed down the Brisbane River.
The scale of the medical transport operation was enormous.
Barrett recorded approximately 83 medical officers, 180 nurses and about 500 rank-and-file personnel, nearly 800 people altogether along with space intended for large quantities of Red Cross stores.
Kyarra departed Fremantle on 4 December 1914 and reached Egypt in January 1915, where the Australian medical units established hospitals to support the Australian forces.
But Kyarra's hospital-ship career was short.
In March 1915, she was converted into a troop transport.
And she returned to Brisbane.
On 3 January 1916, more than 1,000 Australian servicemen embarked aboard Kyarra in Brisbane. Friends and relatives gathered to farewell them as the troopship prepared to depart.
Over the following years, Kyarra continued transporting Australian personnel as part of the Allied war effort.
By 1917, she was being used in an ambulance-transfer/casualty-clearing role between France and England.
Then came her final voyage.
In May 1918, Kyarra was ordered to Devonport to act as a casualty-clearing ship for the repatriation of wounded Australian soldiers. She was also carrying general cargo and other passengers. Importantly, Historic England records that she was not marked as a hospital ship at the time of her sinking.
On the morning of 26 May 1918, while passing near Anvil Point off the Dorset coast, disaster struck.
The German submarine UB-57, commanded by Oberleutnant Johannes Lohs, fired a torpedo.
It struck Kyarra on her port side, causing the ship to sink in about 19 minutes. Historic England records that five men were killed in the explosion and another died after being taken ashore - six deaths in total.
The Australian War Memorial, however, gives the total as nine lives lost, so historical sources are not completely consistent on the casualty figure.
Today, the wreck lies off the Dorset coast and has become a well-known recreational diving site. Historic England records the wreck at a depth of about 27 metres.
From a passenger liner launched in 1903…
To a hospital ship carrying Australia's medical teams…
To a troopship carrying more than 1,000 Australian servicemen from Brisbane…
And finally, to a wartime wreck lying beneath the English Channel.
And that’s the remarkable story of HMAT Kyarra the ship photographed sailing down the Brisbane River on 24 November 1914.
Thousands of Brisbane residents may have watched her pass that day.
Few could have imagined where that ship and the Australians who travelled aboard her would eventually go.
Lest we forget.
[Historical references: Australian War Memorial; James W. Barrett and P. E. Deane, The Australian Army Medical Corps in Egypt (1916); Historic England's Kyarra wreck record.]
A note on our visuals: To ℎelp bring tℎis story to life, we’ve created an artistic illustration based on a public-domain ℎistorical image. Wℎile we’ve made every effort to remain ℎistorically accurate, some details may include artistic interpretation or minor inaccuracies.
Tℎe image is presented solely for educational and non-commercial ℎistorical storytelling purposes.
